ACT Reading Tips: Build a Higher Section Score

By Maya R., Test Prep Specialist

The direct answer: to raise your ACT® Reading score, read each passage with a purpose before the questions, anchor every answer in a specific line of text, and hold a steady pace of about 67 seconds per question across 36 items in 40 minutes. The redesigned ACT keeps reading at 36 questions in 40 minutes, and ACT reports that roughly 44 to 52 percent of reading items test key ideas and details (ACT's official test information). Most missed reading questions are not about hard vocabulary. They are about answering from memory instead of from the passage.

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ACT Reading at a Glance

The Reporting Categories Tell You What to Practice

ACT Inc. organizes reading into three reporting categories: Key Ideas and Details (about 44 to 52 percent of items), Craft and Structure (26 to 33 percent), and Integration of Knowledge and Ideas (19 to 26 percent) (ACT's official test information). That split matters because it tells you where the points live. Most students lose marks in Craft and Structure, the questions that ask how a passage works, not just what it says.

In my classroom, I see the same pattern every year. A student reads the whole passage, feels confident, then misses three questions because they picked the answer that "sounded right" instead of the answer the text supports. The fix is not more reading speed. It is a habit of pointing to evidence.

Key Ideas and Details

These ask what the passage says. The winning move is locating the exact sentence. Light annotation that marks the main claim of each paragraph pays off here, because you can return to it in seconds.

Craft and Structure

These ask how the passage works: word meaning in context, author intent, text structure. They require you to read the question's wording closely, not just the passage. A question that says "the author's attitude" is different from one that says "the primary purpose," and the wrong answer often fits one but not the other.

A Passage Method That Actually Works

I teach a simple loop that keeps you anchored in the text. It is not flashy, but it removes the two biggest score killers: answering from memory and running out of time.

Read the frame first

Spend about 30 seconds on the first and last sentence of every paragraph before you touch the questions. That gives you the skeleton: the claim, the turn, the conclusion. You do not need to memorize the passage. You need to know where things are.

Mark one phrase per paragraph

In the margin, write a short label: "author's claim," "counterexample," "shift." One phrase is enough. Over annotating wastes time and buries the main idea under noise. The goal is a map you can scan, not a summary.

Answer from the line, not your head

Every correct answer is in the text. If you cannot point to the sentence that supports it, reconsider. This single habit separates a 28 from a 34 more than any speed trick.

Pacing and the Fourth Choice

The redesigned ACT reading section uses four answer choices instead of five. That changes the math on guessing: with four choices, an informed elimination gives you a real edge, and a blind guess is worth 25 percent instead of 20 percent. There is no penalty for a wrong answer, so a blank is the only true mistake (ACT scoring overview).

Hold ten minutes per passage

Forty minutes divided by four passages is ten minutes each, including questions. If one passage is brutal, do not let it eat the next. Mark the hard item, move on, and return with buffer time at the end. A single slow passage steals time from three others.

Use elimination, then commit

With four choices, rule out the clearly wrong ones first. The distractors often paraphrase a different part of the text, so check where the evidence actually sits before you commit. A choice can be true in real life and still be wrong for that question if the passage does not support it.

A Timed Practice Routine

Single passages are not enough to build stamina. You need full sections under clock pressure.

Week one: one passage a day

Annotate one passage daily and tally your misses by category. Are you missing details or craft? The pattern tells you what to drill. ACT offers free timed practice in its official question bank (ACT sample questions and practice), which is the most realistic source of passage types.

Week two and beyond: full sections

Once you can finish one passage cleanly, run a full 36 question section once a week. The fatigue of question 30 is different from question 5, and only a full section reveals it. After each run, re tally by category and attack the weakest one next.

Common Misconceptions

• "Read everything slowly." Structure first, detail on demand. Slow reading without a map still misses local cues.
• "Hard words mean hard questions." Vocabulary in context is usually local and answerable from the sentence around it.
• "Trust your memory." Anchor every answer in a line. Memory fills gaps the passage did not actually cover.
• "Skip annotation to save time." Light notes save far more time on the questions than they cost up front.
• "One passage defines the score." Pacing protects the other three. A stalled passage should not sink the section.

A Worked Example: Anchoring in the Line

Concrete practice shows the method. Suppose the passage says, "The river, once a border, became a road." A question asks what the line suggests about the town's change.

The wrong answer paraphrases "the river is important." The right answer points to the line: the river changed function from divider to connector, so the town grew more open. The evidence is the words "border" versus "road." Students who answer from memory of the whole passage miss the local cue, because they pick the choice that feels thematically true rather than the one the line supports.

This is why I drill line anchoring before anything else. The skill transfers to every passage type, because the test always rewards text supported answers over impression based ones.

Frequently Asked Questions

How many ACT reading questions are there?

Thirty six questions in 40 minutes on the redesigned ACT (ACT's official test information).

What passage types appear?

Prose fiction, social science, humanities, and natural science.

Is reading part of the ACT Composite?

Yes, with English and math, under the EMR Composite on the redesigned ACT.

How should I pace?

About 10 minutes per passage, which works out to roughly 67 seconds per question.

Is there a guessing penalty?

No. There is no penalty for wrong answers, so answer every question.

What do the reporting categories mean?

ACT groups reading items into Key Ideas and Details, Craft and Structure, and Integration of Knowledge and Ideas, which guide where your practice time pays off most.